Literary Arts Events 2017 - 2018
Literary Arts Events, Hilary Term 2018
Thursday 5 April
Enduring Fictions: Celebrating The Long Gaze Back
A celebration of The Long Gaze Back, the Dublin One City One Book choice for 2018. Dr Aileen Douglas, Dr Paul Delaney, Professor Eve Patten, and Dr Amy Prendergast will discuss the tradition of women’s short fiction in Ireland with contributors to The Long Gaze Back. The evening will also feature readings from the anthology, and new work by female composers based in Ireland performed by the Mornington Singers and conducted by Dr Orla Flanagan (Department of Music).
Regents House, 7-9pm; booking details to follow.
Wednesday 18 April
Bernard O’Donoghue will read from and discuss his work in poetry, criticism and translation in an event to mark his residency as a Visiting Research Fellow in the Long Room Hub.
Neill Lecture Theatre, from 7pm; full details to follow.
Wednesday 28 March
Ambassador to launch new books about Irish poetry and Greece
The School of English will welcome Her Excellency Katia Georgiou, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Greece to Ireland at an event on Wednesday 28 March to launch two new books exploring the relationship between Ireland and Greece through poetry.
At the launch, Joanna Kruczkowska, Assistant Professor at the University of Lodz, author of Irish Poets and Modern Greece: Heaney, Mahon, Cavafy, Seferis (2017), and editor of Landscapes of Irish and Greek Poets: Essays, Poems, Interviews (2018), will present and discuss her work with the poet Harry Clifton.
The books explore diverse connections of contemporary Irish poets with modern Greece (as opposed to the overwhelming presence of antiquity) and of Greek poets with Ireland. They delve into the poets’ travels and work in Greece/Ireland, and into translation of and allusion to Modern Greek literature in Irish poetry. Another focus of the publications is landscape – external, internal, and the landscape of poetry – which offers a comparative insight into both countries.
This event is generously supported by the Hellenic Society of Ireland and the Hellenic Community of Ireland.
This event, ‘The Greek Connection’, will take place at 7pm on Wednesday 28 March in the Emmet Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College. The event is free and all are most welcome, but advance registration is required at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-greek-connection-tickets-43897370216
Dr Joanna Kruczkowska
Thursday 22 March
A reading by Selina Guinness to celebrate her residency as Irish Writer Fellow in the Oscar Wilde Centre.
Selina Guinness is a writer, lecturer and critic, with a keen interest in new writing. Her memoir, The Crocodile by the Door (Penguin Ireland), about life in the Dublin Mountains, was shortlisted for Best Biography in the Costa Book Awards and for the BGE Irish Book Awards in 2012. Her anthology, The New Irish Poets (Bloodaxe), promoted the generation of poets who began to publish in the 1990s. Her stories and essays have been anthologised in All Over Ireland (Faber), The Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction, 2005 - 2015 (New Island), and The Dublin Review Reader. She reviews regularly for The Irish Times, and is currently writing a novel set in Budapest.
She will read from her work, and discuss her writing with Professor Siobhán Garrigan, Loyola Chair of Theology, TCD.
The reading will take place on Thursday 22 March in the Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, and it will be followed by a reception, to which all are most welcome. Please register in advance at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/a-reading-by-selina-guinness-tickets-43309079623
Selina Guinness
Wednesday 14 March
Ireland Chair of Poetry Lecture
Professor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin will deliver her annual lecture as Ireland Professor of Poetry at Trinity on 14 March 2018. Professor Ní Chuilleanáin, a Fellow of the College and former member of the School of English, was appointed to the Chair in 2016. Her lecture, entitled ‘I have my people and they are waiting: Who are the readers of poetry?’, will explore the question of the audience for poetry. Prior registration required: please email irelandchairofpoetry@gmail.com to RSVP
The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust was set up in 1998, following Seamus Heaney’s receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, and is jointly held between Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. Every three years a poet of honour and distinction is chosen to represent the Chair as Ireland’s Professor of Poetry. During their tenure the holder spends a year attached to each of the three universities. Professor Ní Chuilleanáin is currently poet-in-residence at Trinity.
Thursday 8 March
Dr Susan Cahill of Concordia University will deliver a lecture on Irish girlhood, Trinity Long Room Hub, 5pm.
Her lecture, on International Women’s Day, marks the launch of the exhibition ‘Story Spinners: Irish Women and Children’s Books’ in the Long Room, curated by Dr Jane Carroll, Dr Pádraic Whyte and students on the MPhil in Children’s Literature.
Anne Enright to read at Trinity
On 18 January the School of English will welcome Anne Enright to give a public reading from her work.
Anne Enright is one of Ireland’s leading writers, and in 2015 she was appointed the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her novel The Gathering won the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Irish Novel of the Year, and The Forgotten Waltz (2011) won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Previous novels include The Wig My Father Wore (1995), shortlisted for the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Irish Literature Prize, What Are You Like?, winner of the 2001 Encore Award and shortlisted for the 2000 Whitbread Novel Award, and The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2002). Her most recent novel, The Green Road, was published in 2015.
Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta and The Paris Review, and her first collection, The Portable Virgin, won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1991. This was followed by her second collection, Taking Pictures, and her collected short stories, Yesterday’s Weather, both published in 2008. She has also published a book of essays, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood (2004).
Tickets are free and all are most welcome but advance registration is required at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/a-reading-by-anne-enright-tickets-41308320298
Anne Enright
Literary Arts Events, Michaelmas Term 2017
Thursday 7 December: A public reading by Danielle McLaughlin, Trinity Long Room Hub, 7pm
Next month Danielle McLaughlin, Visiting Writer Fellow in the Oscar Wilde Centre, will give a public reading at an event hosted by the School of English to celebrate her residency this term.
The event will take place on Thursday 7 December at 7pm in the Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, and will be followed by a reception in the Hoey Ideas Space. It is free, and all are most welcome, but please reserve tickets in advance at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/danielle-mclaughlin-reading-tickets-38871088472
Danielle McLaughlin’s stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines such as The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, The Lonely Crowd and The New Yorker, and have been broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. Her debut collection of short stories Dinosaurs on Other Planets was published in Ireland by The Stinging Fly Press in 2015, and in the UK (John Murray), US (Random House) and Slovakia (Inaque) in 2016.
Together with Madeleine D’Arcy, she co-runs Fiction at the Friary, a new monthly fiction event in Cork which takes place at the Friary Bar, North Mall on the last Sunday of every month.
More details available at https://www.facebook.com/FictionattheFriary/
Danielle McLaughlin
Thursday 30 November: Patrick Kavanagh: A 50th Anniversary Celebration, Swift Theatre, Arts Building, 7pm
'In fifty years or so'
It is fifty years since Patrick Kavanagh died but his poetry remains well loved and widely read.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, 30th November 2017, a celebration of his work will take place in the Swift Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College, at 7 p.m.
It is organized by the School of English, in association with the Trustees of the Estate of Katherine Kavanagh, and Poetry Ireland.
Panel discussion chaired by Vincent Woods: Kavanagh in the 21st century
Taking part are the critics, Lucy Collins (UCD), Kenneth Keating (UCD), Rosie Lavan (TCD), and the poets Michael O’Loughlin and Leanne O’Sullivan.
Followed by a reading of fifteen poems by Kavanagh including two chosen by readers of his poetry. To vote on your favourite, please go to https://poll.fbapp.io/what-s-your-favourite-patrick-kavanagh-poem or email enchllnn@tcd.ie
Booking is advised. Booking is through Eventbrite, http://www.poetryireland.ie/whats-on/in-fifty-years-or-so
Patrick Kavanagh
Thursday 23 November: School of English celebrates Stewart Parker
On 23 November the School will host a special event to celebrate the work of the Belfast writer Stewart Parker. Leading experts on Parker’s work will join us for readings and discussion, centring on Parker’s autobiographical novel Hopdance, published earlier this year by Lilliput, and his drama. We will welcome Marilynn Richtarik, editor of Hopdance, author of Stewart Parker: A Life (OUP, 2012), and professor of English at Georgia State University, and Lynne Parker, co-founder and artistic director of Rough Magic Theatre Company. The evening will be chaired and introduced by Gerald Dawe, and will feature special guest readings from Parker’s work. Stewart Parker’s Hopdance and the Making of the Playwright will take place at 7.30pm on Thursday 23 November, in the Synge Theatre.Admission is free and all are welcome, but prior registration is required. Please visit Eventbrite to reserve your ticket:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/stewart-parkers-hopdance-and-the-making-of-the-playwright-tickets-39326447463?aff=es2
Stewart Parker with nurses
Thursday 5 October: Tom Murphy: A Celebration, Trinity Long Room Hub, 5.30-7.30pm
The School of English and the Library jointly celebrate a triple event: the publication of The Theatre of Tom Murphy by Emeritus Professor Nicholas Grene (Bloomsbury); the mounting of the online exhibition, ‘Tom Murphy: a Life in the Theatre’; and the acquisition by the Library of the Papers of Tom Murphy 2001-17. Prize-winning Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole will speak at the event and acclaimed Druid Theatre actor Marie Mullen will read from Murphy’s plays.
Tuesday 31 October: Trinity Writers in Conversation, GMB, 5pm
In an event co-hosted by Trinity Literary Society and the School of English we welcome current students and recent graduates of Trinity now enjoying success with their writing. Oisin Fagan, Catherine Howard, Frank Leahy, and Mark O’Connor will be among the writers reading from their work, and sharing advice on pursuing a literary career.
Tuesday 31 October: A Bram Stoker Halloween, Thomas Davis Theatre, 7pm
Renowned author and horror scholar David J. Skal, recipient of a Long Room Hub visiting research fellowship in support of his Bram Stoker biography Something in the Blood, returns to TCD to discuss the significance of All Hallow’s Eve and Celtic folklore in the creation of Dracula. (Note: costumes are strongly encouraged!)
Friday 17 and Saturday 18 November: Gothic Nature: New Directions in Ecohorror and the Ecogothic, Trinity Long Room Hub
A conference organised by Emily Bourke, Dr Bernice Murphy, and Dr Elizabeth Parker, School of English. Full programme to follow; registration details at https://gothicnature.wordpress.com/
Ongoing Events 2017
Tuesday 3 October to Thursday 21 December: Oscar Wilde 1854 – 1900: From Decadence to Despair, Old Library
An exhibition in the Long Room featuring highlights from the Library’s Oscar Wilde collection. Open daily; free entry for Trinity students and staff.
Tuesdays from 26 September: Staff Postgraduate Seminar Series
Lunchtime seminars run at 1pm in weeks 3, 5, 8, and 10, and early evening seminars featuring guest speakers in weeks 1 and 12 at 5pm in the Neill Lecture Theatre in the Hub. The first speaker of the term is Dr Aileen Douglas, Head of School, this evening in the Hub at 5pm, and her talk is entitled ‘Alphabets, Black arts, and Cyphers: Writing, Gender and Jonathan Swift’. For full details of the series visit https://www.tcd.ie/English/research/post-grad-seminar.php
Tuesdays from 10 October: Evening Lecture Series: English Literature, Edmund Burke Theatre, Arts Building, 7-8pm
Weekly lectures by members of the School of English at Trinity on selected texts from among those chosen for the Leaving Certificate. Full programme and booking details at https://www.tcd.ie/OWC/.
Events beyond Trinity 2017
Thursday 2 to Thursday 9 November: Dublin Book Festival
Full programme to be announced soon: www.dublinbookfestival.com/
Sunday 5 to Sunday 12 November: Gerald Dawe at the Singapore Writers Festival
Poet and emeritus professor Gerald Dawe will be reading and contributing to panel discussions at the Singapore Writers Festival this month. This international, multi-lingual literary festival has been running since 1986, and it brings together writers, academics and thinkers from all over the world. Professor Dawe will contribute to three events during the festival, including the Epic International Reading Night, and a panel discussion entitled ‘Small Country, Great Literature: What Singapore Can Learn from Ireland’. The festival runs from 5 to 12 November.
Gerald Dawe
Thursday 28 September to Sunday 15 October: Dublin Theatre Festival, various venues
Full programme available here: https://www.dublintheatrefestival.com/
Sunday 1 to Sunday 15 October: Kildare Readers Festival, various venues
A range of literary events, all free of charge: http://kildare.ie/library/readersfestival/
Tuesday 3 October: Carlo Gébler in conversation with Claire Kilroy, The Mansion House, Dublin 2, 6.30pm
A special event to launch Carlo Gébler’s new novel The Innocent of Falkland House. RSVP required: email office@newisland.ie or call 01 278 4225.
Wednesday 4 October: A Portobello Evening with Harry Clifton, Books Upstairs, 7pm
An evening of poetry and history with a focus on Dublin’s Portobello neighbourhood. Tickets €5; booking at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/a-portobello-evening-with-harry-clifton-poetry-history-tickets-37600590378
Friday 6 October: The Moy Sessions, Ballina Arts Centre, 8pm
Poetry reading with Gerald Dawe and Sean Lysaght. Full details at http://www.ballinaartscentre.com/events/2017/oct/06/moy-sessions-vol-vii-sean-lysaght-gerald-dawe/
Friday 6 to Sunday 8 October: Iron Mountain Literature Festival, Carrick-on-Shannon
Events on the themes of place, migration, and history, including a reading and discussion of translation with Nuala Ní Dhomnaill and Ireland Professor of Poetry Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin. Special rate for students, but early booking advised: https://www.ironmountainfestival.ie/
Saturday 7 to Sunday 8 October: The Muse of Yeats, Rossnaree House, Slane
A festival exploring the lives of Maud Gonne and other women who had a significant influence on W. B. Yeats and his work. Special student rate available. More details and booking at http://www.rossnaree.ie/special-events/the-muse-of-yeats
Saturday 14 October: Francis Ledwidge: Poetry and the First World War 1917-2017
Centenary Seminar at Slane Castle, Co Meath, including a seminar by Gerald Dawe, ‘Francis Ledwidge, World War I, and Poetry’. Full details from https://solsticeartscentre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873579280
Friday 20 to Sunday 22 October: Omagh Literary Festival: Honouring Benedict Kiely
Including a reading by Carlo Gébler on Friday 20th, and a lecture by Gerald Dawe, ‘The Hand of History’: Ben, Borders & Brexit’, on Saturday 21st. Full details from https://kielyweekend.wordpress.com/
Friday 27 to Sunday 29 October: Festival of Wild Atlantic Writing: In the Footsteps of Ted Hughes, Doonreagan, Cashel, Co. Galway
Featuring, on Saturday 28th, ‘Crossing the Sound: Gerry Dawe and Padraic Rainey’, a special reading by Gerald Dawe reflecting on his collaboration with the artist Padraic Rainey.